Kjellgren Kaminsky's 'Clear Cut' Helps Us Envision the Life Cycle of Forested Trees

Lush, green and seemingly eternal, much of Sweden’s forests are far from that. 90% of the country’s trees are cut down for forestry, each stuck in a cycle of 60 years life where they are grown, chopped down and grown once again to find the same fate. A somewhat somber cycle for our life-sustaining green friends, Joakim Kaminsky and Maria Poll decided to go deep into the forest of Medelpad to create an installation that would help us to envision the trees of the past, present and future. Titled “Clear Cut” the designers took 15 meters of mirror coated fabric and wrapped the trunks of the existing trees in the cloth. The installation seeks to connect the trees to time, to provide a way to visualize the older generations that once stood there, and to reflect the clear cut that will soon replace them. After the mirrors were installed, the artists stayed in the forest during a day and a night observing how the installation changed with its surroundings.